Transport Scotland is expected to become an early casualty of the Scottish government’s cutbacks in quangos, as ministers seeks to slim state spending and cut down on bureaucracy.
The agency, which has a 600-strong payroll, will cease to be a standalone operation and its responsibilities over ferries, roads and railways will be brought directly under ministerial control.
Changes likely to be confirmed later in the summer will include other services being provided by arms-length organisations.
There have been calls to re-unite the ferries and port owner Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) with the ferries operator Caledonian MacBrayne.
It is unclear how changing the status of Transport Scotland would affect the seven regional transport partnerships, including Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) whose chief executive Valerie Davidson is leaving at the end of August.
Economy and Transport secretary Stephen Flynn has promised to deliver “bold reform” which will be overseen by Public Sector Reform minister Ivan McKee who is driving the shake-up in services across all areas of government.
Reducing the 130 quangos in Scotland featured in the manifestos of almost all political parties during the election campaign, with Reform UK Scotland leader Malcolm Offord publicly stating that a lot of the work could be handled within government departments.
The devolved public sector workforce stood at 551,500 at the end of last year and is expected to fall by about 11,000 with Mr McKee looking at non-replacement of leavers as a way of avoiding compulsory redundancies.
He will also seek to identify where the cuts will be needed before the autumn Budget when new Finance Secretary Jenny Gilruth faces a £4.7 billion gap between the government’s spending plans and likely funding by the end of the decade.
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